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The proposal would see 50 existing academies allowed to select children on academic criteria instead of building 50 completely new schools.

Children would take the traditional 11 plus exam but there would be opportunities for entry examinations at 12, 13 and 16 for late developers.

Each new grammar school would also be obliged to take a minimum number of children on free school meals to ensure that those from the least well off families were getting a fair chance.

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While Mr Woolfe has not identified a figure sources have indicated that the Birmingham model of 25 per cent children from poor families would be his prefered option.

Grammar schools are vehicles for social mobility

Steven Woolfe, UKIP

Mr Woolfe said: "Grammar schools are vehicles for social mobility - they enable bright kids to achieve their dreams whatever their family's circumstances.

"But on too many occasions they are branded havens for the middle classes, so today I am calling for 50 new grammar schools to open in 50 of the poorest boroughs in our country."

He went on: "UKIP will stand up for those ignored by the establishment parties. We will give a voice to those our country has left behind.

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The Ukip MP believes that grammar schools are a 'vehicle for social mobility'

"Top class selective education for the brightest kids from poor backgrounds will give them the chance to live out the British dream.

“I want every child, wherever and to whomever they are born, to get the chance I had when I was young to get a fantastic education."

Mr Woolfe, who was born on Moss Side, before growing up in a one-parent family on a council estate in Burnage, won a scholarship to attend the independent St Bede's College and went on to become a barrister and general counsel for major financial institutions.